


The Hangover Comes the Day After

by travelinthedark



Category: West Wing
Genre: Gen, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-16
Updated: 2011-02-16
Packaged: 2017-10-15 17:30:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/163158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/travelinthedark/pseuds/travelinthedark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You broke the window of a prominent republican Senator’s car with a brick,” Sam repeats flatly, “because of the tequila shots.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hangover Comes the Day After

It’s late on a Thursday night when Sam receives a phone call from the Georgetown PD asking if he’ll take a call from Josh Lyman. He’s still at the office going over the agenda for a meeting between President Santos and the Speaker of the House when he answers the phone, and by the time that Sam makes it down to the station it’s really more like very early Friday morning. When he reaches the holding cell he thanks the officer who led him down and turns to look at Josh, who is sitting propped up against the far wall.

“Josh?” Sam calls, and he fights the urge to smile at the way Josh’s head snaps up to look at him. "What's going on?"

"Sam!" Josh says blearily, “I’m not entirely sure what happened.” He blinks up at Sam through the bars. Sam doesn’t say anything, just raises his eyebrows and tilts his head slightly. After a moment Josh adds, “I think it might have had something to do with the tequila shots."

Sam smirks. “I don’t think it was the tequila shots that landed you in jail.” Josh makes something that could be an affirmative noise as he tries to push himself up onto his feet, stumbling slightly as his balance falters. He finally makes it over to stand in front of Sam and curls his hands around the bars in an effort, Sam assumes, to keep himself upright. “What happened?” Sam asks.

“There was a, um,” Josh’s brow furrows as he tries to remember exactly how he ended up in a jail cell, “there was a thing.”

“A thing?” Sam asks. Josh nods and swallows hard, as though ‘a thing’ is a suitable explanation. “Okay, Josh, you’re going to have to give me a little more to work with, here.”

“I think there might have been a car involved,” Josh says.

“Please don’t tell me you were driving,” Sam says, imagining the absolute hell that Josh getting a DUI would cause.

“No, no no no nooo,” Josh says, shaking his head vehemently. The action seems to disorient him, though, as he stops abruptly and blinks a few times. “I think I just broke the window.”

“Of your car?”

“I think it was Senator Childers’ Mercedes,” Josh says.

“You broke the window of Senator Childers’ Mercedes,” Sam repeats, flatly.

Josh nods before rubbing a hand across his face and adding, “With a brick.”

“You broke the window of a prominent republican Senator’s car with a brick,” Sam repeats, “because of the tequila shots.”

“Yeah. I think there was more, but I can’t remember.”

“Well I’m sure we’ll get a detailed recount of the events in today’s paper, so I probably wouldn’t worry about it too much,” Sam says dryly. When Josh just nods agreeably Sam sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “The Chief of Staff arrested on drunk and disorderly charges. Lou is going to kill you.”

“I know.”

“The President is going to kill you.” Sam says.

“I know.”

“Why didn’t you call Donna?” Sam asks.

“She scares me.”

“She’s your fiance, Josh.”

“Yeah. She’s terrifying.”

Sam takes a moment to consider before he says, “I’m not even going to touch that one,” because he remembers when he and Lisa were engaged and he knows how truly scary she could be. “What makes you think that I was the safe choice?”

“You’ll at least wait until I’m sober to scream at me,” Josh says.

Sam is silent for a moment because Josh is right. “What happened to Bram? I thought you two were just going out for a drink?”

“He met a woman,” Josh says, “and I did not.”

“You have Donna,” Sam reminds him gently.

“Yes,” Josh says.

Sam breathes out slowly before he says, “Okay, how did you end up talking to Senator Childers?”

“He invited me to his table for a drink,” Josh says, like it's an explanation.

“Oh god,” Sam says, “he bought you a drink and you broke the window of his car?”

“More or less.”

“This is really, amazingly bad.”

“Yes,” Josh says again. There’s a long moment of silence before Sam sighs again.

“Okay,” he says, “I’m going to go post your bail, and I’m going to call Lou, and then hopefully I will wake up and find that this has all been some horrible dream.”

Josh nods at him, his hands still curled loosely around the bars of the cell.

Sam shakes his head and follows the officer back down the hallway and fills out the paperwork to have Josh released, handing over his VISA to cover the bail. While it’s processing he calls Lou, who apparently hasn’t slept in several days and reacts even more poorly to the news than he expected. After listening to several rather creative threats on both his and Josh’s lives he promises to bring Josh directly to her office and manages to get off the phone.

Josh appears a minute later, escorted by an officer who appears to be more or less holding him up. Sam retrieves his credit card and the copy of the incident report that he’d requested before he moves over to put an arm around Josh’s waist and leave the station.

After he manages to get Josh into the passenger seat of his car he takes a minute to skim through the incident report. ‘After a verbal altercation inside the establishment the suspect followed the complainant from the building,’ he reads, and then he skims ahead to, ‘proceeded to throw the brick through the passenger side window of the complainant’s vehicle.’ The highlight, though, in Sam’s opinion, is when Josh reportedly yelled, “I’ll show you your Second Amendment rights,” before taking off his shirt and ‘adopting a boxing stance.’

“Nothing like a bar fight to further the bi-partisan spirit,” Sam mutters before sliding the report and receipts onto his dashboard. He turns the ignition over and pulls into the street before flipping open his cell phone and calling Donna.

“I would like to preface what I am about to tell you by saying that I was in no way involved,” Sam says. Donna is half asleep and wary, and when he says, “Josh was arrested,” the shill shriek of ‘what?’ in his ear isn’t unexpected. He sees Josh startle from his dazed state out of the corner of the eye, and he can imagine the complete and total dread Josh must be feeling. “If you bring a change of clothes and meet us in Lou’s office you can scream at him all you want.”

He patiently listens to Donna ranting into the phone as he navigates the small through streets that lead to the White House, responding with placating noise and mono-syllabic not-quite words until she hangs up. He shuts his phone with a small sigh and glances over to where Josh is passed out with his forehead against the window, mouth open and breathing heavily against the glass. The next few weeks, Sam thinks, are going to be pure hell.


End file.
